LIMA — Cameron Holt Releford may only be 19 but a prosecutor described him Monday as a violent and dangerous man who fired a shot near a 16-year-old girl delivering pizzas while he robbed her.
Assistant Allen County Prosecutor Terri Kohlrieser asked a judge to send him to prison for a long time to not only punish him but, equally as important, protect the public.
“This is how he is starting off at 19. I hate to think what is to come,” Kohlrieser said.
Judge Jeffrey Reed of Allen County Common Pleas Court agreed and sent Releford to prison for 15 years on aggravated robbery with a gun and felonious assault.
Releford ordered a pizza at 10 a.m. July 13 to be delivered to a house at 700 Catalpa St.
When the 16-year-old girl arrived, Releford pulled a gun, demanded money and threatened to kill her several times. He ordered her into a bathroom and told her to take off her clothes but she refused and began to cry, Kohlrieser said.
Releford threatened to shoot her if she didn’t shut up and fired a shot near her into a wall, Kohlrieser said.
“She was completely and utterly afraid for her life,” Kohlrieser said.
After Releford let her go he took steps to conceal his identity by cutting off his dreadlocks. Investigators later found his cut dreadlocks and Releford. He soon confessed, blaming the robbery on hunger and drugs, Kohlrieser said.
The teenager was in court with her family but did not speak. The robbery has changed her life, Kohlrieser said, explaining she no longer is a carefree person the way all teenagers deserve to be.
“She doesn’t get to be happy-go-lucky. She gets nightmares. She has stress, anxiety and medication for it,” Kohlrieser said.
Releford told the judge he had nothing to say. He didn’t even offer an apology.
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